Would Banning Non-Competes Turn Route 128 Into Another Silicon Valley?

The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, has proposed legislation that would almost entirely ban non-compete agreements. Massachusetts would join two other states, California and North Dakota, that enforce such bans. The chances of passage are not great, but the consequences if it did pass are significant enough so that it behooves companies to “implement steps sooner rather than later to protect their trade secrets and confidential information should non-competes become unenforceable in the Commonwealth,” according to Seyfarth Shaw attorneys Katherine E. Perrelli, Dawn Mertineit and Erik W. Weibust. They lay out what those steps are, in the form of a list of best practices. Some argue a ban on employee non-compete agreements stimulates growth in high-tech industries and consider Silicon Valley as the poster example. Needless to say, not everyone agrees.